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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

On the trail of the green fingerprint

By Tam Dalyell

WHICH do you choose – less damage to the ozone layer or less crimes solved? As Mick Hamer suggests, without the ozone-destroying CFCs, the police would have a much harder time catching forgers and swindlers (This Week, 29 October 1994). The police use the CFC trichlorotrifluoroethane as the solvent to carry the chemical which develops fingerprints, usually the amino acid reagent ninhydrin. As from January this year, manufacture of all CFCs was banned, so what are the police now using?

David Maclean, the minister responsible for crime prevention, tells me that each year the police achieve about 10 000 identifications resulting from the use of ninhydrin and the CFC, covering many categories of crime, from simple cheque fraud to major swindles.

Maclean adds that at present all police forces have adequate stocks of the CFC to enable them to continue operationally for at least two years. They are permitted to use these stocks under the Montreal Protocol which banned their manufacture, the amount used being minute compared with previous industrial applications. However, the police are now looking for a safe solvent to give a similar performance to the CFC. If it is unsuccessful, it may be forced to adopt formulations developing fewer fingerprints.

TALK with some of the farmers in my constituency and you soon realise that one of their fears is that genetically modified crops will lead to a plague of superweeds. This important issue was raised at a meeting of the Lothian branch of the National Farmers’ Union which I attended recently. When I put the matter to William Waldegrave, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, he agreed that there was a high probability that genes introduced into crop plants by genetic modification could spread to weedy relatives. But the really important question, he said, was whether the introduction of the genes into the wild relatives would represent a hazard, either to hedgerows and gardens or to other farms.

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However, before a genetically modified organism, including crop plants, can be released into the environment, consent must be obtained under the Environmental protection Act 1990, Waldegrave added. The applicants would have to carry out a risk assessment of the effects of the release, and this would he scrutinised by the Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environment, which advises ministers on whether consent should be granted. Waldegrave added that the risks from genes spreading to other plants would be considered in the risk assessment. If there appeared to be any risk of harm then the government would expect appropriate risk management measures to be taken, he said.

I am delighted to report that the assessment of risk in these matters has become a major component of many agricultural research programmes. I, and no doubt the country’s farmers, now await the results with great interest.

COLIN TUDGE elegantly argued in these pages the case for captive breeding and the vital role that good zoos can play in it (Forum, 28 January). His polemic impressed me so much I brought it to the attention of environment secretary John Gummer. Gummer said he found Tudge’s article balanced and sensible. He agreed that habitat loss was the major threat to species diversity, and he added that the government would continue to support appropriate national and international measures to deal with this difficult problem.

Gummer averred that effective action to maintain species diversity required a range of conservation measures. He said the government believed that captive breeding schemes had a vital part to play in efforts to ensure the survival of some of the world’s most threatened species. The role of zoos in undertaking research, exchanging information, organising and coordinating loans of animals for breeding, and maintaining international stud books was crucial to the success of these efforts.

Zoos in Britain, Gummer added, now have a number of successful captive breeding programmes for exotic species. These are overseen and coordinated by a well-established network of specialist advisory groups under the auspices of the National Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland. Many British zoos are working closely with zoos overseas in an effort to save endangered species and reintroduce them to suitably protected areas of their native countries as appropriate.